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NBCU Eliminating 200 Jobs at DreamWorks Animation

Employees in marketing, distribution, consumer products and finance at DWA’s Glendale Campus to start receiving termination notices as early as this week.

DreamWorks Animation’s ‘Trolls’ arrives in theaters on November 4.

Roughly 200 positions are being eliminated at the Glendale campus of DreamWorks Animation, according to a report by Deadline. The move follows Comcast and NBCUniversal’s $3.8 billion takeover of DreamWorks Animation in April.

Jeff Shell, Chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, reportedly sent a memo to staffers on Thursday which read, “We have begun sharing organizational decisions that will result in the elimination of approximately 200 positions at our Glendale campus. These changes are focused in the corporate overhead groups as well as distribution and consumer products, areas where we can fully integrate operations with NBCUniversal.”

Comcast’s purchase of DWA was cleared by the U.S. Justice Department on August 22, and a new management team headed by co-presidents Bonnie Arnold and Mireille Soria was announced, reporting to Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley. In its Q2 earnings report, DreamWorks Animation showed that the studio spent $1.2 million during the quarter from a $17.3 million bonus plan to retain employees while waiting for the deal with Comcast to close.

Employees in marketing, distribution, consumer products and finance at DWA’s Glendale Campus will reportedly start receiving termination notices as early as this week.

You can read the entire memo below:

To: DWA
Subject: A Message From Jeff Shell

Dear Colleagues:

As we move along in the process of integrating our companies, the leadership team will continually evaluate the needs of our business to ensure we are best positioned to meet our goal of being a leader in premium animation content across all platforms.  As indicated on Day One, we remain committed to transparency and, over the next few months, will communicate about any changes expected as a part of the integration with NBCUniversal.

To that end, today we have begun sharing organizational decisions that will result in the elimination of approximately 200 positions at our Glendale campus. These changes are focused in the corporate overhead groups as well as distribution and consumer products, areas where we can fully integrate operations with NBCUniversal.

Those who will be impacted by these decisions will be notified this week and many will be working with us over the next several months as a part of the transition. These are difficult but necessary moves as we work to integrate our organizations and we will be as generous as possible to those who will be leaving the company.

We know you will join us in supporting your colleagues during this time of transition and we too will be exploring other opportunities for them and providing career placement counseling to help minimize the impact.

Looking forward, we are excited about the incredible opportunities ahead for our combined organization and we will work together to make them a reality.

Thanks for your continued hard work,

Jeff Shell

NBCU has yet to officially announce which DreamWorks Animation titles they will be distributing, but Deadline reports that distribution partner 20th Century Fox will not be releasing any DWA titles after 2017, which would mean that Larrikins (dated for February 16, 2018), How To Train Your Dragon 3 (June 29, 2018) and The Croods 2 (undated) will be distributed by Universal. Upcoming DWA films currently on Fox’s release schedule include Trolls (November 4), The Boss Baby (March 31, 2017) and Captain Underpants (June 2, 2017).

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.